The History of a Cake That Precedes History Itself

Fruitcake. The seasonal loaf of fruits and nuts has remained at the center of comical relief during the winter holiday season—a nod to its long shelf life no doubt. But what is this cake’s history? How did it become a well-known source for humor?

The cake everyone pretends to like has a widely diverse origin story. Ancient Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the United Kingdom are among the list. As American TV host and comedian Johnny Carson put it, “There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.” This seems to be the case.

In Ancient Rome, fruitcake’s first version was a high-energy bar called a satura. This nutritionally dense food was crafted of barley, pomegranate seeds, nuts, and raisins mixed in honeyed wine sustained Roman warriors while on long marches across the empire.

In Egypt, fruitcake was found next to royal dignitaries in the great pyramids. They were placed next to these notable figures to sweeten their experience in the afterlife.

Fruitcakes rapidly gained popularity in Europe and many countries spun their own region-based recipe.

The 1400s proved a pivotal point for this delicacy. The Catholic Church deemed the fruitcake’s flavor too sinful and prohibited the use of butter for the cakes during Advent, which is four weeks celebrated by Christians before Christmas. This led to knights carrying less flavorful cakes made of flour, oil, yeast, and water. They became known as stollen, the German word for fruitcake.

In 1490, Pope Innocent VIII granted written permission in a letter known as the “Butter Letter” or Butterbrief for the cakes to once again contain butter. This letter allowed Saxony–a state of Germany–to use milk and butter in the stollen fruitcakes.

Sugar from the Americas during the 16th century gave way to excess candied fruit, making the cakes even more popular and affordable. The 17th century English fruitcake was yeast-leavened with rum and dried fruits, extending its shelf life.

The fruitcake we’ve come to know today still has a variety of recipes, some family-known and others country-based. In the United States, fruitcake is often a dense batter mixed with dried raisins, apricots, figs, prunes, dates, pecans, walnuts, and almonds. Some spices include cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ground ginger. A glaze or icing can also be a common addition to the cake.

Despite the jokes about fruitcake’s longevity and global mutual dislike, it carries with it a strong history of popularity and a taste as old as time.